Mail Employees Go Postal on Closure of Bronx Plant

Editor's Note: This article first appeared in the latest issue of the Norwood News, on the streets and online now.

By Alex Kratz

James Perez, a Kingsbridge Heights resident and 24-year veteran of the United States Postal Service, is having a hard time imagining working outside of the Bronx. But he might not have a choice in the matter.

By the end of the fall, his position and at least 231 others at the Bronx mail processing plant will be eliminated as the USPS consolidates all of the Bronx’s mail processing and distribution into the Manhattan plant. Perez and his co-workers may end up in Manhattan, but they could be transplanted to any postal location within 50 miles of the five boroughs.

The USPS, citing budget concerns due to a “dramatic” drop in mail volume, said this is a done deal, but the postal workers union is not giving up without a fight.

They organized a rally to protest the elimination of the Bronx plant for Wednesday afternoon, July 27. It will start at the recently-closed Oak Point station on E. 149th Street and end at the Bronx General Post Office (where the processing plant is located) at E. 149th Street and the Grand Concourse. There, at 11:30 a.m., along with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., the union will list the reasons why eliminating the borough’s processing center is a bad move and should be reconsidered.

Bronx News Roundup, March 18

Hopefully you are reading this on a laptop or iPad/Phone in Van Cortlandt or Crotona or Soundview or Pelham Bay or Roberto Clemente or Williamsbridge Oval or any one of the Bronx's many parks. And if you're not, hopefully you'll get to one later today as temperatures will soar into the 70s! Less warm over the weekend, but it will still remain jarringly comfortable.  

To the news!

Story of the Day: Spotlight on Ex-Cop Husband of Dead Bronx Mom
Yesterday morning, Eddy Coello, a former NYPD housing cop, walked unprompted into the 45th Precinct with his lawyer to talk with police one day after the dead body of his wife, Tina Adovasio, was discovered in a wooded area in Westchester County. Medical examiners said Adovasio died from asphyxiation. Coello, who has a history of domestic violence, refused to give police a DNA sample and walked out of the precinct 24 minutes later. At this point, police are saying he is the only "person of interest" in this case. A former girlfriend told the Daily News Coello was volatile and prone to violent outbursts. As police continued to gather evidence from Coello's car and the Throgs Neck home he shared with Adovasio and her four children, Adovasio's lawyer told the Post the case was "plodding toward an inevitable conclusion."

Quick Hits:
Here's our story on the decision to close the Oak Point post office. 

The state revoked the license of Ophadell Williams, the driver of the Chinatown tour bus that crashed on I-95 in the Bronx, killing 15 passengers and leaving six others in critical condition. Transportation officials and state police are also clamping down on other tour bus drivers.

On "Match Day," some 200 medical students at the Bronx's Albert Einstein College of Medicine found out where they will be going to be resident physicians. Many are surprisingly choosing the lower-paying family medicine route. Students will disperse throughout the country, but one, who will stay in the Bronx at Montefiore Medical Center and pursue family medicine, said, “This country needs more primary care doctors. It’s the best way to deliver care, in terms of prevention, in terms of long-term follow-up, patient satisfaction, and reducing cost."

A new exhibition at the Lehman College art gallery is highlighting the resurgence of so-called "fiber arts" -- knitting, weaving, embroidery, that type of thing. 

Woodlawn Cemetery and the union representing its workers have reached a tentative agreement that would increase wages and lead to the cemetery cutting only 12 staffers, down from the original 23.

Bronx/Harlem State Senator Jose M. Serrano says he's much more excited about the new Puerto Rican and Latino caucus than he was last year, when it included Pedro Espada Jr. (ousted by voters, facing criminal charges) and Hiram Monserrate (ousted by the senate after being convicted of beating his girlfriend). The new caucus includes Bronx reps Serrano, Ruben Diaz Sr., Gustavo Rivera, Adriano Espaillat as well as Martin Milave Dilan (Brooklyn) and Jose Peralta (Queens).

Many Bronx tenants continue to benefit from oil donations given out by Citgo, the oil company controlled by Hugo Chavez and the Venezuelan government.

Check out all the planned work-related service changes on Bronx subway lines this weekend. Every line in the borough will be affected.

The Riverdale Press unmasks the "phantom painters" behind the giant shamrock painted every St. Patrick's Day on W. 238th Street and Review Place.